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He kissed her cheek, tasting her salty tears mixed with the rainwater. “No. You’re hurting me.” He corrected. “You know you belong here. Haven’t you felt it from the first moment we met?”
“Yes,” she sobbed. “But you said you’re just like Chad. What if I’m just like Helena? What if I’m so in love with you that I can’t see what you’re really like?”
He shook his head. “I was wrong about them. Chad used to be like me. Then he met Helena, and fell in love. She changed him, the way you’ve changed me. I understand it now. Having never been in love, I had no idea what the emotion was capable of doing to a man.”
Mikey leaned back in his arms. “Is this... are you for real?”
“I have never been more serious in my life. Stay because you want to, and because we need you, Mikey Jones.”
“Yes.” She stood up on tiptoes and kissed him hard on the mouth. Passionately and hungrily. Though she knew she wasn’t leaving now, the desperate need to kiss Loucas would never pass. He was her other half; she’d had to travel to the other side of the world, but she’d found him, and she was never, ever, going to let him go.
EPILOGUE
Six months later.
“Oh, Mikey, Andrew’s asking for you?”
Mikey looked up from the iPad she was using to email her brother. “Okay, I’ll just be a minute.”
Nanny’s smile was serene. How had Mikey ever thought of her as austere? The better she had come to know her, the more fond she’d grown of the woman. “He’s playing on the path that leads to the cove.”
Mikey smiled, thinking about the cove where Loucas had first told her that he loved her. Since then, he’d said it often and truthfully. He’d left her with absolutely no doubts that he was a changed man, when it came to women and commitments. He’d even delegated some of his tasks to senior members of his team, to enable himself to spend more time with Mikey and Andrew.
She put her iPad aside and walked out of the glass doors. She breathed in deeply as the smell of the changing season erupted around her. So far, Greece had been beautiful regardless of the weather of the day. But as winter wrapped around them, she thought it might be her favourite time of year. Mild but with a blustery chill that made her long to curl up with Loucas and collect his body warmth.
She grinned at the image she’d conjured. She was so distracted by her thoughts that, at first, she didn’t notice the flickering candles. Then, though, she stopped walking, and looked around properly. Candles in glass jars were everywhere. She gasped. It was so beautiful. And in between the flickering flames lay a path of strewn red rose petals. Some were being gently tossed by the wind, making dancing spectacles of themselves at her feet.
“What the?” She shook her head, as she followed the path.
As it opened out, giving way to the beginning of the sandy shore, she saw Andrew. And felt tears of pride form in her eyes. He was five now, and looked big and strong, like his uncle, and his mum, and his father, too. He was the second love of her life.
His eyes flickered nervously to the side. He was wearing a suit, just like Loucas’s. “Mikey, thank you for helping me get better.”
She nodded, unable to speak because of the tears clogging her throat.
The little boy continued. “I love you. I want you to be part of my family.”
Mikey smiled, ruffling his hair with her hand. “Oh, Andy. I am part of your family, sweetie, and always will be.”
“He’s asking you to marry him,” Loucas spoke from behind. Mikey spun around, and let out a sob. He was kneeling on the ground, holding a small ring box out to her. “We
both are.”
She was crying and laughing, and nodding. She reached down and scooped Andrew up, hugging him against her hip as she ran to Loucas. “Yes, I’ll marry you. Both of you.”
Loucas wrapped the two most important people in the world in his arms.
“Can I go play?”
Mikey laughed. “Go, honey, go.” She put him down and watched as he went whooping down towards the beach.
“Let me do this properly, now.”
She wiped at her tears. “That was plenty proper, let me tell you.”
He got back down on his knees. “He insisted on being involved.”
“I’m glad he was. In marrying you, I’m completely aware that I will be marrying Andy too.”
